Coon Rapids Historical Mural

Click on the individual images above for more details about each item in the mural.

The Coon Rapids Historical Mural was painted by Helen Potter, employed as a community artist by the City of Coon Rapids during 1977-78. The early photographs used on this historic mural were reproduced by DeFoe Studios.

Information for the mural was obtained from the Anoka County Historical Society, the Minnesota State Historical Society, and the Anoka, Blaine, and Coon Rapids newspapers.

A debt of gratitude for additional first-hand information is owed to Mary Hauwiller, Charley Barney, and Mary Dweller, as well as members of the Coon Rapids Historical Commission of 1977-78 for research-gathering and fact-finding efforts. They were: Roland Anderson, Owen Hyland (Chair), Nancy Lee, George and Alice Otis, Adelaide Robinson, David Rolph, James Whitehead, and Lorayne Zawistowski.

Other memorabilia were received from past and present citizens of Coon Rapids. The starting date of the mural is 1857. It was in July 1857 that the area generally known today as Coon Rapids was organized as Anoka Township. Minor alterations of the boundary have been made since that time, notably the extraction of the area for the City of Anoka.

Anoka Township became known as the Village of Coon Rapids in October of 1952 and the City of Coon Rapids in June of 1959. A 50 percent matching grant from the Minnesota State Historical Society funded the mural, while the remaining share came from the City of Coon Rapids by way of supplies and of time spent by the artist Helen Potter and the members of the Coon Rapids Historical Commission.